This invention relates to a guard rail device for protecting objects, for example, animals, people, automobiles, etc., from falling under the rear wheels of a large wheel diameter vehicle.
Very often when a large wheel diameter vehicle is traveling on a road, collisions may occur whereby certain objects, for example, animals, people, automobiles, etc., run into the side of the vehicle. This often results in the animal, person or automobile, etc., going under the vehicle and being dragged into the rear wheels of the vehicle. The results are often catastrophic in that people are injured and property destroyed.
The guard rail device in this invention is designed for use in large wheel diameter vehicles. By the use of the term "large wheel diameter vehicles" it is meant vehicles which have a larger wheel diameter than ordinarily encountered in the standard automobile. This usually means that the body of the truck between the rear and front wheels is elevated providing a space for animals, people and automobiles to be dragged under the rear wheels. Exemplary large wheel diameter vehicles are tractor trailers, railway coaches, freight cars, etc.
The following are the relevant prior art patents:
U.S. Pat. No. 2,002,832 describes a guard rail system for a semi-trailer and its associated tow car. The prime disadvantage of the device described in this patent is that the guard rail system is substantially the same height as the underside of tractor and does not really prevent the colliding object from being dragged into the rear wheels of the truck.
Another relevant prior art patent is U.S. Pat. No. 1,588,736 describing an automobile protector device. This device is not used on large wheel diameter vehicles. The device is mainly used for motor vehicles wherein there is little danger of an object of appreciable size being dragged under the automobile wheels.